About Me

I am a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) who specializes in body-focused psychotherapy, integrating talk therapy and body-focused therapy into my practice. After 25 years in practice in the Decatur & Atlanta area, my commitment to and enthusiasm for my work continues to deepen and grow. Every day I get to draw from all that I have learned, blending it together in a unique way that allows me to attend to you as the individual that you are.

Because I believe that therapy is about our mind, our body, our emotions and our spirit, I have studied a wide array of body-focused practices in addition to my traditional training in talk psychotherapy. My professional trainings include:

Rubenfeld Synergy® Method

I studied for three years with Ilana Rubenfeld in New York City in the Rubenfeld Synergy® Method, a body-based style of psychotherapy integrating body, mind and spirit. It holds the deep belief that the healing potential already exists inside each of us and is waiting to be actualized. Focusing on the body and using gentle touch creates an altered state that allows us access to dialogue with the unconscious mind and tap into the long buried parts of ourselves that are more difficult to access in traditional talk psychotherapy. www.rubenfeldsynergy.com

The Integrative Process Method

I studied extensively with Dr. Werner Kundig, PhD in The Integrative Process Method, an energy based method of body-oriented psychotherapy. This process teaches how the body stores memory and how to release it both energetically and emotionally from the body.

Brainspotting

Brainspotting (BSP) is a powerful tool to help relieve unresolved symptoms of trauma, recurring anxiety and other ongoing emotionally charged issues that interfere with daily living. Although the event that triggered these reactions may reside in the past, it continues to interfere with a person’s ability to live peacefully and comfortably in the present.

Brainspotting identifies “spots” in the limbic center of the brain where emotional memory is processed and stored. It identifies eye positions (brain spots) that are activated when emotional memory becomes aroused and helps de-condition, and thereby decrease, the intensity of the response to that old, stored memory. www.brainspotting.pro

Somatic Experiencing®

Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing is a body-centered technique that helps release trauma from the body. This work is based on the observation that animals in the wild naturally regulate and neutralize high levels of arousal when in danger. While humans possess these same natural mechanisms, our rational minds often override them causing us pain, anxiety, and cognitive dysfunction. SE teaches us how to regulate, neutralize and discharge these highly charged feelings that get trapped in our bodies. Trauma then gets released and resolved. www.traumahealing.com

Voice Dialogue Training

Hal and Sidra Stone teach the Voice Dialogue Technique, a study of the Psychology of the Inner Selves. This technique helps us understand the ways in which we dialogue internally with ourselves. We learn to listen to who is speaking (the wounded child, the angry teenager, the critic, the protector, etc.), how that part came to be, why it is in charge at any given time, and how to manage them. Then we work to bring our healthier adult self to our everyday interactions instead of letting these reactive, less healthy, often sabotaging parts be in charge. www.delos-inc.com

Massage Therapy

My first step in becoming a body-focused therapist was to learn about the body and massage therapy taught me both the anatomy and physiology of the body as well as hands-on-techniques for working with it. While I no longer use massage in my practice, this was my introduction to how emotions and energy become trapped in the body and need to be released for full healing to occur.

Wisdom Quotes

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh" he whispered.
"Yes Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, "I just wanted to be sure of you."

Wisdom is learning how to live in harmony with the world as it is in any given moment.

When life knocks you down, roll over and look at the stars.

Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.
Mother Teresa

The single most important issue for traumatized people is to find a sense of safety in their own bodies.
Bessel van der Kolk

Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. Oscar Wilde

You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. C.S. Lewis

When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid. Audre Lorde

Some people are going to leave but that's not the end of your story. It's the end of their part in your story.

Look for something positive in every day, even if some days you have to look a little harder.

Never assume that loud is strong and quiet is weak.

The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me. Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand

Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.
Carl Bard

Cark Bard

If it can be solved, there is no need to worry, and if it can't be solved, worry is of no use.

Dalai Lama

Worrying does not take away tomorrow's troubles. It takes away today's peace.

Wisdom never forgets that all things have two sides.

Carl Jung

Fall down seven times.
Stand up eight.

Your past mistakes are meant to guide you, not define you.

So this is the part where I'm supposed to tell you it's not scary.
Well, it is. But fear is natural, fear is good - it just means you're growing.

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.

Albert Einstein

Maturing is realizing how many things don't require your comment.

Feelings are just visitors. Let them come and go.

Mooji

Never assume that loud is strong and quiet is weak.

These pains you feel are messengers.
Listen to them.

Rumi

Today I decided to forgive you. Not because you apologized, or because you acknowledged the pain that you caused me, but because my soul deserves peace.

N.Zebian

“Give yourself a day of doing nothing to balance the discordant days of doing too much. Work is not always required. There is such a thing as sacred idleness.”

Scottish author and poet George MacDonald

When we numb the darkness we numb the light.
Brene Brown

I am learning to love the sound of my feet walking away from things not meant for me.

“Loving the self begins with never ever criticizing ourselves for anything. Criticism locks us into the very pattern we are trying to change. Understanding and being gentle with ourselves helps us to move out of it.”
Louise Hay, “You Can Heal Your Life”